I’ve told him time after time that this never works out. She’s not one of us. She would not have met him had she not worked in a laboratory, bicycling through the humid night to tend her experiments, amid cornfields waving in the darkness, greenhouses glinting by the long road from the agricultural experiment station. (In the Laboratory of the Night)

***

Erika knew when her mother had come in from patrol. From ancient habit, she woke at each of the hinges of the night, and then at moonset. Each time, she reminded herself that her mother either would return, or would not.

By the time that she came downstairs to take up her position at the sink with the colander, her mother was heating the frying pan for the omelets. (Erika and the Vampire)

***

And now for something totally different! This week’s eight-sentence excerpt is the first four lines from each of my two Vampire Variations pieces. In the Laboratory of the Night (just released 1/14/2014) and Erika and the Vampire (released last summer).

For more Vampire Variations (this time in a comedic mode), check out my buddy Becca Patterson’s Intervention.

Weekend Writing Warriors offers eight-sentence excerpts from a variety of writers; see the other excerpts here.